It's the last day in 2014. I guess this year does fly. This morning started by drizzling rain but I still managed to go to the nearby yoga studio. I've been absent several times due to this and that. During December usually the studio is not too full since many yogis members are having holiday. Therefore I only met five yogis friends. We practiced for 1,5 hours.

Feeling fresh after the practicing, my yogis friends asked us to have a year-end-lunch. We definitely said yes (I guess my appetite always gets stronger every time I finish my yoga practice #excuse). We decided to enjoy Balinese Cuisine by having crispy duck, sate lilit and their signature sambal at Bebek Tepi Sawah, Citos.

The rain was still on even after we finished our lunch but we didn't complain since people said that rain in a new year's eve means prosperity, amen. Wish all the good things in 2015, happy new year!!!

Brains packed with knowledge are yummy. They're nice and creamy. And sort of grainy at the same time.--The Strange Library, Haruki Murakami

Welcome to Murakamiland, a dark-dreamlike story awaits you. The Strange Library is actually a bite-size book since it only consists of less than 100 pages. And for the first time we will enjoy Murakami's work with illustration. But, this is not a book for kid since the story still in Murakami's usual way. The story was written back in 1982 but just translated in English in 2014. This is one of my super quick reading since I finished it within a couple of hours. I was just too curious to put the book down.

The story starts with an unnamed schoolboy visits a city library to return two books and asks for reading a subject he says has just popped into his head: Tax Collection in the Ottoman Empire. A female librarian sends him to room 107 where another strange librarian hands him the requested book and conducts him to a secret space --'a creepy room', behind a locked door and down a hall to a labyrinth of corridors where a small man dressed in a sheepskin puts him a cell under lock and key. A very strange library indeed.

What will happen to the boy? And how to refer the quote on yummy brain as I stated above with the boy's story? Tell you what, you're dying to know the ending of the story, aren't you? Therefore I said this is my super quick reading. An alternative book for a new Murakami's reader. Simple comparing to other Murakami's works yet fascinating.

We spent the last three days in Puncak area. Yep, the traffic is quite hectic. The good thing about Puncak area is it has one-way traffic arrangement thus we just wait the right hour to go up there and decide the time to go down home.

A Cold Swimming Pool

The Girls Favorite Jacuzzi

We stayed at Novus Giri Resort and Spa. With the cold air, nice athmosphere and non-stop raining, we decided to just stay in the hotel. The hotel is quite kids friendly. It has a Rabbit Village. It's a well-maintained garden full of cute-fat rabbits. We found a cute rabbit wearing a santa hat. The girls proposed, "Can we bring it home, Ma?' Well...not now baby, when then? Someday in the future (or perhaps never. Yes, I am a mean mom when it comes to pet). The hotel's Kids Club also exciting. The girls played there then continued swimming although they couldn't swim too long since the water was too cold but Thank God, the hotel provided a jacuzzi with warm water that made the girls just wanted to stay there all day long. Pony-riding and flying fox activity also available.

Rabbit in Santa Costume

We left the hotel only to have our meal. Even on our last days we just ordered the room service and enjoyed our meals in the room. The girls loved it, Zea said "when in the world will mom let me eat on the bed instead in the hotel room?' Yes..it's a double-standard rule, no eating on the bed at home but allow them do it at the hotel (sorry housekeeping department). It's a holiday aniyway, let's us just do anything we want and forget about mom-rules for a while. Happy holiday, everybody!!!

The holiday mood is already in the air. It's time for celebration. My girls, Najla and Zea, also enjoy their school break even our domestic helper, mba Yoyoh has already returned to her hometown since last Saturday. However parents are still busy keeping up with the deadline until last minutes.

Last Monday, I had to come to my office and so did my hubby. No one to look after our girls. Finally I decided to take them to my office. To calm them down we headed to one of the best cake shops in town, Colette & Lolaat Senopati. I love everything about this shop. The interior, the product, the packaging even also its tagline Cakes & Dreams, how creative.

Finished choosing their cakes, cookies and drinks, the girls were ready to accompany mama working. Well… with full tummy, their tab and story books (the last one is clearly for Zea), they're so cooperative. I could finish my business in peace. If only they're this calm everyday perhaps mom will not get more grey hair ..haha..Happy holiday, everyone!!!

The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) is an iconic masterpiece written by Antoine de Saint-Exupery back in 1943. Found the movie trailer and made me travelled back to my old days. The movie will be released on October 2015. Why does it take sooooo long???? Can't hardly wait for this timeless story.

My daughter, Najla, handed me a pink invitation card last week while saying, "My teacher is getting married." I opened the invitation, reading and notifying all important info. One day before the D-day, I told my hubby about the invitation. He agreed to accompany us to the wedding party.

Last Sunday we were on the location. Lucky us, we could easily get a parking space. At the moment we wanted to enter the wedding reception hall, I noticed different names of the bride and the groom stated on the welcoming board. They're not Najla's teachers name. My hubby asked the security guard whether there's other reception hall in the area. While the conversation took place, I just felt that something wrong here.

Since we left the invitation card in the car, my hubby asked all of us to return to our car and re-check it. The day checked, the hour checked, the location checked but the date is….December 14 while that day was December 7. How could I miss such an important info? Yes..I know, it's an old age nothing but old age #CountingTheGreyHair. My hubby said nothing since for the past one week he already left two bags in the flight cabin and realised his belonging at home hours later #TenggakGibolanBareng.

This is the 4th book written by Jhumpa Lahiri after Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake and Unaccustomed Earth. I always love the way Lahiri delivered her story. She's just a natural-born story teller. She comes out with stunning characters, compelling story and all will be written beautifully. No wonder if she received several awards including the Pulitzer Prize.

In her latest novel The Lowland, she tells about two brothers close in age, only have 15 months age differences. Udayan is the rebellious one while Subhash is the responsible serious one. They grow up together in Tollygunge, a suburb of Calcutta during the 1960s political chaos. After college, Subhash heads to Rhode Island, US, to continue his study. Udayan stays in Calcutta and becomes involved in a political uprising. Udayan finally killed leaving behind a pregnant wife, Gauri. Subhash returns home and picks up the pieces including fills the role of a husband to widowed Gauri and a father to his niece-to-be.

It's a long-moving family saga. It takes almost 70 years of a family history from mid-twentieth century India to a contemporary America that has been a consistent feature of Lahiri's fiction. I enjoy not only the drama of the family but also Indian history. Lahiri did a great job of summarizing the political landscape of India in 1960s.

If you love The Namesake, you will definitely love this one as well. Highly recommended.

About me:

A mom of two. A wife, a lawyer, a lecturer, a translator and a book freak.
Read all Paulo Coelho, Haruki Murakami & Mitch Albom's works.
Beside books, movies, music, and tea, travelling around the globe will always be in my wish list.
Just drop me an email at tjut_riana@yahoo.com for any comments or anything in between.